The Global Environment of Business

Frederick Guy

Description

The globalization of business activity: whether you love it or hate it, it affects you. What causes it, how different countries deal with it, and what the future might hold for it are all key questions which The Global Environment of Business answers. It traces the growth of big business, the comings and goings of economic globalization over two centuries, and compares the institutional environments and track records of business in a selection of countries on every continent today. It examines the role of local and regional clusters of small and medium-sized companies, and the obstacles which both oil wealth, and concentrated land ownership, pose for poor countries trying to develop. The final chapter assesses the sustainability of global business in the context of
climate change and growth of regional blocs. Changing forms of business organization; changing technology; who wins and who loses; all are kept in sight throughout the book.

Frederick Guy pulls together all these various themes. Employing clear, vivid examples, narrative structures, and stories, it is not a dry textbook. Economic, political, and sociological theories are used, explained, evaluated; and employed to knit together a collection of vivid examples and cases.

The Global Environment of Business

Frederick Guy

Table of Contents

Part I: Background: Technology, Business Organization, and Politics 1. High Fixed Costs, Mass Production, and the Origins of the Large Corporation2. Globalization Comes and Goes: the End of Free Trade in the Late 19th Century3. Mass Production and Lean ProductionPart II: Globalization 4. GlobalizationPart III: Different Ways of Doing Business 5. Clusters: Location in the Global Economy6. Varieties of Capitalism7. Up From Poverty: Some Issues in Economic DevelopmentPart IV: The future 8. Regionalism, the Natural Environment, and the End of Global Market Liberalization

The Global Environment of Business

Frederick Guy

Author Information

Frederick Guy is a lecturer in the Department of Management at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was born in San Francisco. He received his BS in the Political Economy of Natural Resources from the University of California at Berkeley, and his PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He worked for ten years as a manager, director, and management consultant for consumer cooperatives in food retailing, wholesaling, and housing, and for two years as a researcher at Cambridge University's Centre for Business Research. He has been with the Department of Management at Birkbeck College, University of London, since 1997. He lives in London with his wife and son.

The Global Environment of Business

Frederick Guy

Reviews and Awards

"This thoroughly researched, well written volume provides an extensive and careful investigation of how the complex relationship between policy, technology and the international business system has evolved in time. The approach is multidimensional, blending in a successful way international economics and international business with political economy and economic history."--Francesca Sanna-Randaccio, University of Rome La Sapienza

"I highly recommend Frederick Guy's The Global Environment of Business. It is rare to see a book that with such intellectual depth and breadth that can serve as a course textbook."--William Lazonick, Director, Center for Industrial Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

"The Global Environment of Business is a fine text offering an analysis of the environment in which international business operates. From how multi-national corporations and nation states interact to shape the international economic system to how the economy internationalizes and how this can lead to a global world or a regional focus, this is packed with technological and historic assessments based on economic research and political science alike: perfect for any college-level business library."--Midwest Book Review

"A unique book on international business providing all essential insights to comprehend the driving mechanisms of economic globalization. The clear presentation of the key intuitions of international trade theory makes this manuscript a main reference for all international business economists."--Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, Department of Economics, Luiss University, Rome